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Challenges and Opportunities from Digital Convergence

Preface

With the blooming of IT technologies, the term of “digital convergence” represents the whole atmosphere at this moment. “Digital convergence”—means that after telecommunication and broadcasting systems are following the IP based framework, contents and services, those were easy to define, turn to be confused. Relying on the uniform platform, operators are able to provide services to different systems. Services containing VoIP, IPTV or the latest terms of “Multi-screen Ecosystem” and “Connected TV” are all involved in the “digital convergence” notion.  Today, no matter the service of “check in” or “watching TV programs on Smartphone,” any figures about multiple services on different devices are presenting the “digital convergence” effect.

On the consumer side, “digital convergence” brings a fascinating imagination of life. Time and space are no more limitations to people for getting information. Consumers select services only depending on the quality of each service. However, the fascinating imagination of customers becomes a pressure to the relative industries. In the past, because of distinctive transmission technique, services of television, internet and information were regarded as in different industries. Effective competitors only appeared in the same industry. However, today “digital convergence” effect results in crossing-industries competition and customer immigration. To accommodating and pursue the new trend, only unique ideas and novel services can help incumbents to survive.

“Digital convergence” brings not only a challenge but also an opportunity. Today, user-friendly application services are cumulatively created and accommodated in the mature broadband network. For examples, high quality entertainment services occur after communication and multimedia broadcasting techniques are improved, “Near Field Communication” technology rising causes new types of cash flow services. Otherwise, Cloud Computing technique enables people easily to access tele-healthcare services and Telematics services.  Certainly, digital convenience accelerating industries transformation and value-added services is now taking place around us. According to ITU reports, every 10% increase of broadband infrastructure extension might cause 0.255 to 1.38% GDP growth rate. High penetration of broadband infrastructure might lead a significant influence on economy growth. Take South Korean experiences as an example, by owing a complete broadband infrastructure, on-line game industry and national digital content industry in this country are individually possessing $8.3 billion and $ 3.4 billion output value.

By sensing the potential possibilities, governments in different countries propose their own national industry policies, including American government proposed “National Broadband Plan”, the “Digital Britain White Paper” formulated by United Kingdom, “Hikari no Michi”(光の道, which means fiber superhighway) in Japan and the “Ultra-Broadband Convergence Network Plan (UBcN plan)” in South Korea, moreover, the “Tri-networks Integration Plan” in China. And Taiwan does not absent in this moment. In order to stand firmly in this trend, we also formulate “Digital Convergence Development Program 2010-2015 (DCDP 2010-2012)” in 2010. Below, we are going to make a briefly and neat description of “DCDP 2010-2012”.

1.INTRODUCTION

For assisting national relative industries to smoothly transform and enhancing Taiwan’s international competitiveness, Executive Yuan admitted the “Digital Convergence Development Program 2010-2015 (DCDP 2012-2015)” in 2010. In this program, there were six main goals containing: (1) complement the broadband superhighway infrastructure; (2) initiate the convergence of telecommunication services; (3) accelerate the process of Television digitization; (4) develop emerging internet video services; (5) improve communication industries; and (6) establish an integrity regulation framework, as well as twenty-one improving tactics and seventy-eight measures for crossing- administrations cooperation and negotiation to be declared. Otherwise, Executive Yuan also established DCTF to be responsible for coordinating every effort from every administration and facilitate digital convergence tasks. Latter, we will make further descriptions for the six main goals, we just mentioned above:

A.Complement the broadband superhighway infrastructure

According to the Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011, proposed by World Economic Forum (WEF), Taiwan on the Network Readiness Index (NRI) item was been ranked at 6th place and at 5th place on another item of highest FTTH/FTTB penetration. However, though our coverage of broadband network was high, the total bandwidth was still insufficient to contain all the new creating services. To resolving the shortage of bandwidth, including Ministry of the Interior (MOI), Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) and National Communications Commission (NCC) were convened to extend the national fiber coverage and facilitate the installation upgrade.

Regarding wireless broadband construction, administrations including MOEA, MOTC and NCC were under obligation to energetically detect the latest developments of wireless telecommunication technologies as well as proposed guidelines from other countries, concerning about the allocation of spectrum, telephone numbers and IP address resources.

Through crossing-administrations cooperation and coordination, in December 2011, the total of national subscribers applying fiber network service had achieved 3.31 million houses, besides, there were 24.58% houses in Taiwan possessed 100Mbps broadband network services. Totally, there were 7.88 million wireless broadband accounts being applied.

B.Initiate the convergence of telecommunication services

Smartphone booming brought an emerging mobile entertainment life style, furthermore, it also accelerated the rising of mobile value-added application services.  To this trend, administrations containing MOEA, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) and NCC all devoted to establishing a constructive environment, with providing assists and building up a complete regulation framework. For examples, up to the end of 2011, national telecommunication operators had signed a memorandum with EasyCard Corporation to develop a mobile cash flow platform, which allows cash flowing through the Internet, for giving people a more convenient experience.

C.Accelerate the process of Television digitization

Within various emerging application services, “Television digitization” might be the most important one in people’s life. “Television digitization” service brought not only a higher quality experience of watching programs, but also created extra demands of relative application services. Furthermore, increasing demands also bought an improvement to the industry and simultaneously accelerating the development of digital content industry.

Nationwide terrestrial TV signal switching program, a fully signal switching from analog to digital, has accomplished in July 2012. In order to achieve 90% coverage rate of digital signal transmission, accommodations containing Council of Indigenous People (CIP) and NCC were not only devoted to establishing a Digitization Improvement Station, but also attempt to integrate all signals from original terrestrial TV stations into one satellite to transmit. To accomplish this signal switching program, government had cultivated for many years and try to increase people’s acceptance level of high definition (HD) TV service. Before receiving this success, NCC had spent a long time devoting itself to integrating containing every effort from many administrations and associations, such as the local governments, national industry associations and operators of household application, moreover, as well as Public Enterprises, including Taiwan Power Company, Chunghwa Post Corporation and Taiwan Water Corporation to popularizing this program.

Nevertheless, about the digitization program of cable TV, up to 2010, though there were already 60% of houses in Taiwan possessing cable TV service, only 5.55% of cable TV houses switched into digital. As a result, we found that no incentive measures might be the crucial reason. To reverse the impasse, our strategy was to amend the current laws, through adjusting the regulation framework we could facilitate the market into effective competition.

In addition, to accelerate the cable TV digitization process, government also regarded the Olympic relaying in England as a turning point to create the demands of HD TV service. After getting the franchise, people are able to watch Olympic Games through any platforms, including terrestrial TV, cable TV and even IPTV. As the demands arising, it would also encourage operators to produce more HD programs afterward.

D.Develop emerging internet video services

Digital convergence effect also caused the emerging internet video services booming. In order to encourage the crossing-platforms video services and achieve 50% user rate in 2015, there were three guidelines been proposed. The first one was emerging video service regulation reforming, the second one was facilitating integration between emerging accessing approaches and distribution channels, and the third one, developing a rational regulation on contents management.

In synchromesh with terrestrial TV signal switching program, emerging internet video services were also assigned to provide HD Olympic Games programs. In that period, the subscribers of Chunghwa Telecom’s MOD (Multimedia on Demand) service were able to watch the Olympic Games relaying on 14 free HD channels and 1 free 3D channel, which is provided by ELETA TV. Moreover, they could also receive the programs on demand through internet or Smartphone. Afterward, from the collected data, we found that even though the rate of new subscribers only had a few rise, an obviously rose presented on the turning on rate. Depended on those data, we believe that people had already been more familiar with IPTV and HD programs. Besides, this relaying program totally attracted 95 individual advertising and the total revenue from advertising was NT$ 80 million dollars.

E.Improve communication industries

Producing prolific contents is the key element for attracting customers and stabilizing the development of digital convergence industry. To facilitate the contents producing, DCDP proposed three elements to be improved: fund, talent and marketing. And the tasks of these three elements were including investment facilitation, marketing skill reinforce, personal training as well as culture protection, consumer’s right protection, technique standardization and transnational cooperation. To assist in industries transformation, MOEA focused on promoting the APP design and upgrades. Recently, measures provided by MOEA, such as transformation counseling, R&D subsidies, drive-by VC investment, personal training and even the R&D loan had already taken effect. In addition, to create a virtuous investment circles in contents industry, government also considered to release more subsidies to encouraged those superior producers and movie makers.

F.Establishing an integrity regulation framework

Digital convergence effect accelerated the competition in the market, including communication or relative contents industries were enter a transformation era. In this period, it was essential to have a practical and integrity regulation framework. Recently, NCC hastened to undertake the amendments of three Acts, containing Radio and Television Act, Cable Radio and Television Act and Satellite Broadcasting Act. Actually, the expectation of this undertaking was to adopt the adjustment of digital convergence in 2014. In addition, Fair Trade Commission (FTC) and Intellectual Property Office (IPO) would also continue to observe the digital convergence influences in 4C (telecommunication, cable television, computer network and e-commerce) and contents (copyright) industries.

2.Second Edition of DCDP and Primly Policies Indicators Advance

Since DCDP was launched, it has caused a tremendous response. Nevertheless, rapidly advanced ICT technologies inspire people’s expectations. Recently, it has already overtaken the anticipations of used DCDP. Therefore, to formulate a prescient version, Executive Yuan adopted the second edition of DCDP 2010-2015 in May 2012. In the second edition, an item of “producing prolific TV programs” is added to be the seventh main subjects, in addition,  there are five extra items added in the improving tactics part; moreover, the number of measures increased to 107 items. Digital convergence indicators are also reformulated. First, 100Mbps wired broadcasting service should achieve 100% in 2013, and the second, accomplishing 100% digitization of cable TV in 2014. To achieve these indicators, relative administrations decide to accelerate the network infrastructure complementing process and cable TV digitization process. Simultaneously, they also consider extending their regulatory scale from emerging internet video services to the connected TV industries, and enhancing superior programs producing by policy making.

In point of accelerating network infrastructure complementing process, a complete broadband network is a foundation of digital convergence industry. However, a “complete” network indicates not only the non-discriminatory access to the hardware, but also mention about having reasonable prices to access broadband services. By considering of Telecommunication operators and cable TV operators are both provides of broadband services, the digitization issue of cable TV industry is also concerned in the DCDP. As a primary enemy to Telecommunication operators in the convergence market, cable TV operators’ competitiveness does not come from the their large share on the cable TV market, but from their possession of wide spread cable network.

Otherwise, various new creating contents and application are also encouraged in the DCDP. With “Smart TV,” “HDTV” and “Connected TV” booming, “TV” has transformed from a passive receiving media to an information transport. Although, those emerging broadcasting techniques might threaten the traditional television industry, they bring positive influences to the media industry. By considering a well-run development must building on a integrity and friendly regulation framework. DCTF, an office established by Exclusive Yuan, will also take its responsible to assist NCC on the digital convergence regulatory issues.

3.Conclusion

Digital convergence effect to us is a turbulence but also a moment. Today, this effect, which originally comes from the techniques convergence, has detonated in different nations and various places; crossing-industries competition turns to be more and more common around the world. To accommodate our nation to this trend, the primary strategy proposed by government is to integrate administrations’ effort. Through policies making, including DCDP upgrading and validly relative regulation frameworks amending, every relative industry is able to restore enough energy and seize the moment, further, naturally turns to be a domain of market competition.

※Challenges and Opportunities from Digital Convergence,STLI, https://stli.iii.org.tw/en/article-detail.aspx?no=105&tp=2&i=169&d=6096 (Date:2024/04/19)
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Release： 2013/04
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Previous Legal issues of Third-Party Payment in Taiwan
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Development Trend of Information Communication Technology Related Laws

In light of the influence on social security of Internet-related crime, in 2007 Taiwan passed the amendment to the Communication Protection and Inspection Act (CPIA) to update the articles relating to the surveillance of Internet-related crimes. Moreover, the notification obligator clause was added to the Child and Adolescent Sex Trade Prevention ACT (CASTPA), and the penalty for copyright infringement over the Internet was prescribed in the Copyright Act in order to stop Internet-related crimes. 1. Amendment to the CPIA On 15 June 2007, the legislature of Taiwan passed the amendment to the CPIA which was promulgated by the President of Republic of China on 11 July 2007. The amendment mainly concerns the update of the power of issuing surveillance warrants, the scope of emergency surveillance, the supervisory agencies of relevant surveillance activities, and the evidence power of illegal surveillance. The amendment will be brought into force in five months. Currently, a surveillance warrant is issued (1) by the district prosecutor following an application made by the police or based on his authority for cases under investigation; and (2) by the judge based on his power for cases on trial. According to Article 5.2 of the amended CPIA, for cases under investigation, the district prosecutor should record the details of surveillance in writing following the applications made by the judiciary police or based on his authority and should state the reasons and submit relevant documents before applying to the jurisdiction court for the issue of the surveillance warrant. The district prosecutor should approve and reply to the applications made by the judiciary police within 2 hours. For cases of greater complexity, the approval and reply time may be extended for another 2 hours with the consent of the chief district prosecutor. After receiving an application for a surveillance warrant from the district prosecutor, the jurisdiction court should approve and reply to the application within 24 hours. For cases on trial, a surveillance warrant should be issued by the judge based on his authority. Also, the judge may give appropriate instructions for the surveillance in the warrant. Moreover, if an application for a surveillance warrant is rejected by the court, the district prosecutor should make no objection in any form. In other words, the power of issuing a surveillance warrant for cases under investigation has been transferred from the district prosecutor to the judge. Furthermore, the law-enforcement authorities are given the right to initiate an “emergency surveillance” before application during the investigation of serious criminal cases according to Article 6 of the CPIA. In an investigation of serious criminal cases involving obstruction of voting, kidnapping, offence of the President and Vice President Election and Recall Act, the judiciary police may request the district prosecutor to orally notify the implemental authorities of an emergency surveillance. However, the district prosecutor should report to the jurisdiction court to apply for a make-up issue of the surveillance warrant within 24 hours. The district prosecutor’s office should appoint a responsible district prosecutor or a head district prosecutor as the emergency contact for cases involving emergency surveillance. The court should also assign a special window to take charge of the applications for surveillance warrants made by the district prosecutor, and should issue a make-up surveillance warrant within 48 hours of the acceptance of the application. Should the make-up surveillance warrant not be issued within 48 hours, the emergency surveillance should be terminated immediately. The district prosecutor, the court of law and agencies taking charge of the country’s intelligence work are responsible for the supervision of surveillance. According on Articles 12 and 16 of the amended CPIA, regulations governing the period and supervision of surveillance are summarized as follows: (1) The period of surveillance should not exceed 30 days for serious and emergency cases involving endangering national security or social order and blackmailing as in Article 5 of the CPIA; or for cases involving obstruction of voting, kidnapping and offence of the President and Vice President Election and Recall Act as in Article 6 of the CPIA. The responsibility of supervision is the district prosecutor's office for cases under investigation and the court of law for cases on a trial. (2) The period of surveillance should not exceed 1 year for collecting information of foreign powers or offshore opposing powers as in Article 7 of the CPIA. Intelligence authorities should send agents to supervise the electronic surveillance equipment or to the supplier of surveillance equipment to supervise the conditions of surveillance. Should continual surveillance be needed, the implemental agency should submit concrete reasons to make a second application for surveillance two days before the end of the first surveillance period. However, the surveillance should be terminated immediately when the chief of the intelligence agency believes that it is no need to continue the surveillance before the end of the surveillance period. Lastly, the exclusivity of the evidence power of information collected from illegal surveillance is added to Articles 5, 6, 7 and 32 of the amended CPIA. According to Articles 5 and 6, should the surveillance involve severe offence of regulations, the information or evidence collected from the surveillance will not be accepted as evidence in a judiciary investigation, a trial or relevant procedure. Additionally, according to Articles 7 and 32, information or evidence collected from illegal surveillance will not be accepted as evidence in a judiciary investigation, a trial or relevant procedure. The severity of the offence should be determined by the judge based on individual cases. 2. Amendment to the CASTPA Child pornography is easily distributed because of the advancement of Internet communication; and the prepubescent pornography market is expanding as a result. The legislature of Taiwan thus passed on 15 June 2007 the amendment to the CASTPA that was promulgated by the President of Republic of China on 4 July 2007. In the amendment, neighborhood heads, ISPs and telecommunication system providers are the obligator of notification, and “possessors” of child pornography are to be penalized. According to the explanatory statement of the act, child pornography is the permanent record of the abuse of the victims. This will inflict continual damage on the victims. Moreover, child pornography is considered a “serious child exploitation” all over the world. Therefore, there is an international understanding to penalize the possession of child pornography. Before the amendment, Article 28 of the statue simply penalizes people distributing and selling child pornography in the form of disc, videotape and printing. Those deliberately distributing, broadcasting and/or selling child pornography in the form of pictures, videotape, film, disc, electronic signal or other form will be penalized by imprisonment for a term of less than 2 years and with a fine of under NT$2 million. [In the amendment,] those deliberately distributing, broadcasting and/or selling child pornography are penalized and imprisonment for a term of less than 3 years and with a fine of under NT$5 million. While child pornography inflicts continual damage on the victims, Article 28.3 has been added to statute. According to this new Article, those in possession without a proper reason of pictures, films, videotapes, discs, electromagnetic recordings and/or other articles containing sexual intercourses or acts of indecency by people under 18 are to be penalized. In this case, the “possession” of child pornography is penalized. The penalization falls into two stages: competent authorities of municipalities and local counties and cities may order the offender to receive guidance education for 2-10 hours if he/she is detected possessing child pornography without a proper reason for the first time; if offenders are detected for the second time or more, they will be fined NT$20000 to NT$200000. The amendment also refers to the legislation in Canada and the Netherland to reduce the scope of “proper reasons for possession” to scientific study, education and for medical treatment purposes in order to protect prepubescent children from sexual exploitation. Moreover, the amendment has expanded the scope of the notification obligator by including ISPs and telecommunication system providers as the notification obligator. While the Internet and mobile phones are widely used by the public and prepubescent children often receive pornographic information via the chat rooms on the Internet and SMS, this will cause many side effects on prepubescent children in the absence of appropriate management and protection. According to the statistics provided by the Ministry of the Interior, about 300 prepubescent children are sexually assaulted every year from online dating. According to The Garden of Hope Foundation, 40% of sex trade with prepubescent girls found in Taipei County during 2003-5 was conducted over the Internet, and it was 100% for prepubescent boys. It is thus clear that the Internet has become a platform for distributing child pornography. ISPs and telecommunication system providers are included as the notification obligator in Article 9 of the amended statute. Therefore, if they do not notify the authorities in the knowledge of child pornography, they will be fined NT$6000-NT$30000 according to Article 36 of the statue. Therefore, neighborhood heads, ISPs and telecommunication system providers must notify the local competent authorities or authorities specified in Article 6 of any prepubescent children who engage or probably engage in the sex trade in their knowledge. This is designed in order to strengthen the notification and prevention functions and to effectively stop those who deliberately use chat rooms on the Internet and SMS to engage in true sex trade in the disguise of online dating. Though the scope of notification obligation has been expanded in the amendment to the CASTPA to strengthen the notification and prevention mechanisms of prepubescent children sex trade and to define the notification obligations of the supplier and provider of SMS, network chat rooms, BBS, blogs and e-news services, many problems arise as a result. First, when telecommunication system providers have the obligation of notification, they also need to submit relevant evidence. However, this may involve the infringement of privacy of communication. If telecommunication system providers must not commit illegal surveillance, they are unable to acknowledge the contents of communication of consumers. In this case, how can they notify any crime? On the other hand, though information over the Internet is open to the public, it is a tough question for law enforcement officers to provide solid evidence proving that the administrator of online chat rooms and blogs has failed to perform his obligation of notification. 3. Amendment to the Copyright Act The online music downloading service debate has become a heated issue in recent years for the following reasons: “to select only the songs I like”, “comprehensive repertoires”, and “convenience”. According to the Online Music Downloading Survey by the Secure Online Shopping Association (SOSA), 85% consumers have tried the online music downloading service, thus giving rise to the comprehensive online music downloading software and services. However, to attract consumers with files containing unlicensed music, video or other files and charge users of such services, some ISPs provide computer programs or technologies, e.g. point-to-point (P2P), for users to exchange such outlawed materials and charge users for such services. Such acts of making profit from copyright infringement has inflicted disputes in copyright infringement. For example, the IFPI’s accusation in 2003 of Kuro, a P2P platform provider, is the first convicted case of P2P music downloading service in Taiwan. Though the software supplied by Kuro is a neutral technology which is not illegal, Kuro recruited members and charged them membership fees for allowing them to illegally downloading, exchanging and reproducing a large amount of unlicensed copyrighted materials with such software and the platform services it supplies. Kuro also advertised that consumers can download tens of thousands of the latest popular songs with the Kuro software and even encouraged members to download them. Therefore, the court decided that Kuro and its members who have practically downloaded copyrighted music illegally are guilty of copyright infringement. On the other hand, ezPeer, another P2P downloading platform provider, was not found guilty of copyright infringement because no law was practiced at that time to prohibit or restrict the use of P2P software. Also, as a transfer platform, ezPeer offers comprehensive functions and it is thus not a tool for committing crime. Even some users transfer or download unlicensed copyrighted materials with this tool, there is possibility for the non-liability reasonable use. Moreover, ISPs have no filtering obligations in the Copyright Act of the ROC. Therefore, even consumers may use the services for illegal activities, P2P service providers are not an accomplice. Therefore, to define the liabilities of P2P platform providers, the legislature of Taiwan passed on 14 June 2007 the amendment to the Copyright Act to include P2P software providers in governance of the act. In the future, platform providers will be prohibited by the Copyright Act from charging members for unlicensed activities. New objects of copyright infringement are added to the amendment, and the amendment includes the addition of Article 87.1.7, 87.1.2, and 97.1; and the revision of Article 93.4. According to Article 87.1.7, attempt to allow the public to openly transfer or reproduce works of others without prior consent or licensing from the owner is copyright infringement, and supply of computer programs and/or technologies that can be used for public transfer and/or reproduction of such for the purpose of making profits is deemed as copyright infringement. As the supplier of computer programs and/or technologies is the focus of this article, behaviors categorized based on this article must also meet the following requirements: (1) attempt to allow the public to download and/or transfer over the Internet copyrighted materials without prior consent or licensing of the copyright owner; (2) the act of supply of computer programs and/or technologies; (3) and making profits from such behaviors. In other words, the focus of the amendment is to prohibit providers by written law from supplying computer programs and/or technologies for users to transfer and/or exchange unlicensed music, video and/or other copyrighted materials and from charging users or making profits from such services. However, the amendment has adopted the principle of technology neutrality and specifies that P2P software providers will only be penalized when they have the act of making profit and the intention of copyright infringement in order not to prevent technological development and to save ISPs from breaking the law all the time. As the “intention” of copyright infringement is the criterion of judgment, Article 87.2 is added to the Copyright Act in the present amendment. According to this article, whether or not the doer instigates, guides or incites in advertisements or other active actions the public to use the computer programs and/or other technologies it supplies to commit copyright infringement is the criterion for determining the “intention” of copyright infringement. Also, the court will determine with severity whether or not the advertisements or other active actions are ready for instigating, guiding or inciting the public use the computer programs and/or other technologies the doer supplies to commit copyright infringement. In general, when providers offer services, such as web photo albums, BBS, instant messengers, auctions, web disks and online discussions, it is not their initial intention to supply software and/or technologies for users to illegally download and/or transfer the copyrighted materials of others, nor do they encourage, instigate, guide, incite and/or convince users to commit copyright infringement. Even such software can be used for transferring and/or distributing unlicensed copyrighted materials, providers must not be restricted, and it should be the users who take the liability of copyright infringement. After the enactment of the amendment, providers who make profit from supplying software for others to distribute unlicensed copyrighted materials and encourage users to exchange such materials with the software are to be penalized by imprisonment for a term of less than 2 years, community service, or fined, or penalty together with a find of under NT$500000 according to Article 93. Moreover, by adding Article 97.1, the competent authorities are entitled to order ISPs to shutdown or close the business when they are convicted for the abovementioned offences and refuse to stop such illegal acts after being determined for “severe copyright infringement” and “severely injury of the benefits of the copyright owner”. After this amendment of the Copyright Act, service providers can no longer use the excuse “we simply provide a service platform and have no right to check the behavior of consumers” as an escape of their liabilities. In fact, P2P service providers who charge users monthly fees for the P2P software, such as Kuro and ezPeer, have already signed licensing agreements with music companies before the enactment of this amendment. Therefore, the music they provide for users to download is no more unlicensed copyrighted materials. Therefore, the amendment has certain effect on improving copyright protection.

Norms of Critical Infrastructure Protection in Japan

The approaches to promote critical infrastructure protection in Japan The approaches to promote critical infrastructure protection in Japan are illustrated below: 1. Coverage of Critical Information Infrastructure In the "Action Plan on Information Security Measures for Critical Infrastructure" promulgated by the Information Security Policy Council (ISPC) in 2005, critical infrastructure is defined as: Critical infrastructure which offers the highly irreplaceable service in a commercial way is necessary for people's normal lives and economic activities, and if the service is discontinued or the supply is deficient or not available, it will seriously influence people's lives and economic activities. Based on the definition of the action plan, the critical infrastructure contains: telecommunication systems, administration services of the government, finance, civil aviation, railway, logistics, power, gas, water, and medical services 2. Promoted Relevant Policies of The Past The issues regarding the CIIP are gradually being developed with the norm of information social security policy in Japan. Adopting the Action Plan of the Basic Guidelines Toward the Promotion of an Advanced Information and Telecommunications Society of 1998 proposed by the Japanese government in 1998 as a basis. The Japanese government keeps presenting polices of improvement for the relevant issues in order to acquire the stable development of telematics and telecommunications. Several years later, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) announced the Comprehensive Strategy on Information Security in 2003. The formulation of the strategy not only emphasizes the possible telematics-related risks and protection against threats that may be encountered in the information society, but it also enhances the level of information security to the level of national security and presents a comprehensive information security improvement program. Furthermore, the submission of the strategy has identified government’s responsibility in the development of information security Therefore, a division which is solely responsible for information security was established in the Cabinet Secretariat and is devoted to the development of it. In 2005, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) amended the Comprehensive Strategy on Information Security and announced the First National Strategy on Information Security based on the creation of a policy of a long-term information security task in Japan which is also the foundation for the policy of guidelines and action security concerning critical information infrastructure. This is in addition to being the most important basis for the policy of information security development. The strategy is different from the Comprehensive Strategy on Information Security in connotation. In the range of information security protection, it not only maintains information security from the perspective of the government; for instance, to divide the rights and duties on information security protection practices between the central government and the local government, and to strengthen the capacity of the government to solve emergencies such as cyber attacks, but it also tries to employ the public-private partnership on the CIIP issue to construct an extensive information security protection and to develop a Capability for Engineering of Protection, Technical Operation, Analysis and Response (CEPTOAR): one similar to the ISAC of America, to strengthen the information sharing and analysis of information security of all industry involved. According to the strategy, the METI established the Information Security Policy Council (ISPC) and the National Information Security Center (NISC) under the subordination of the Cabinet Secretariat in order to reach a goal of dependable society of information security.1 Finally, the information security policies more directly related with the CIIP are the Action Plan on Information Security Measures for Critical Infrastructure and the Standards for Information Security Measures for the Central Government Computer Systems, both of which regulate CI-related threats, information security standards, public-private partnership information sharing system, and the levels of information security standards between different governments and critical infrastructures, respectively. 3. Oraganization Framework Generally speaking, the Cabinet Secretariat is the main division of the CIIP and the information security for the Japanese government, while the ISPC and the NISC established under the Cabinet Secretariat in 2005 are the core organizations for the development of the CIIP policy. In addition, the National Policy Agency (NPA) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) also played an important role in assisting the Cabinet Secretariat with critical infrastructure protection. The part of public-private partnership is covered by the CEPTOAR which takes the responsibility for information sharing and analysis of information security between the government and private organizations. 4. Notification System For critical infrastructure protection, Japan has set up a warning and notification system in addition to the emphasis on fundamental information security protection. With the concept of public-private partnership, various messages related with information security are analyzed and shared in order to prevent information security incidents from occurring. The network of notification system in Japan mainly consists of several organizations as listed below. (1) National Incident Response Team The National Incident Response Team (NIRT) which is the information security office under the Cabinet Secretariat in the organization framework belongs to the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT)2 and is first in line in the government to handle internet emergencies. According to the Action Plan for Ensuring e-Government's IT Security, the NIRT which consists of 17 experts from the government and the private organizations is responsible to (1) accurately understand and analyze emergencies, (2) develop technical strategies to solve and rehabilitate emergencies to prevent incidents from reoccurrence, (3) provide other governmental organizations the assistance to solve the information security issue, (4) collect and analyze information or intelligence so that effective solutions and strategies may be provided when an incident happens, (5) provide the governmental organization with professional knowledge and information, and (6) enhance and improve all knowledge pertinent to information security. (2) Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center The Japan Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (JPCERT/cc) is the first Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) established in Japan. It consists of internet service suppliers, security products/service suppliers, governmental agencies, and associations of industry & commerce. The JPCERT/CC is also a member of the Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team (APCERT) and a member of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST). It coordinates and integrates prevention measures pertinent to information security and is consistent with other CSIRTs. (3) Telecom Information Sharing and Analysis Center In Japan, besides the mechanism responsible to notify the government, which functions as a bridge for communication between it and all those outside of it, the mechanism of information sharing and notification is also established among industries to provide each with a channel for information exchange and consultation. In 2001, Japan established the Telecom Information Sharing and Analysis Center Japan (Telecom-ISAC Japan). In addition to real-time inspection for computer intrusion incidents and conducting information collection and analysis, the Telecom-ISAC Japan proposes to e-government many suggestions related with the Transact-SQL issue as well. The reasons for launching the Telecom-ISAC are to instantaneously detect a computer intrusion incident, and to instantaneously gather and analyze its information, and then exchange this with other telecom carriers and offer them relevant countermeasures for precaution; so that in can reach the goal of ensuring telecom security since it is an important infrastructure concerning social economy. (4) Cyber Force The reasons for launching the Cyber Force are to maintain the security to use the internet by regularly "patrolling" it, searching for evidence of internet crime, and to notify the critical infrastructure operators about any unusual internet use so as to prevent the occurrence of cyber terror attacks. The Cyber Force also assists operators to solve and diminish the damage and influences when an incident occurs. (5) Portal Site of National Police Agency The National Police Agency owns the portal site "@police". It exists to prevent large-scale cyber emergencies and to provide gathered information concerning information security to government. In addition to providing the techniques related with the safe use of computer networks, @police is also dedicated to educating internet users about the concept of information security and to increase security awareness. (6) Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Since 1990, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has cooperated with the JPCERT/CC and the Information Technology Promotion Agency (IPA) to provide reports on virus, intrusion, and the damage caused by them, to remind the public to pay attention. 5. Legal Norms The laws regarding critical infrastructure protection in Japan are illustrated as follows: (1) Unauthorized Computer Access Law of 1999 The Unauthorized Computer Access Law includes various conducts such as cyber intrusion, and data thefts, into the norms of criminal punishment to deter cyber crimes from spreading in order to ensure the safety of the critical information infrastructure. (2) Act on Electronic Signatures and Certification Business of 2000 With the formulation of the Act on Electronic Signatures and Certification Business, the smooth promotion of the electronic signature system is ensured and the circulation and process of electronic communication can be fostered further. (3) Basic Law on Formation of an Advanced Information and Telecommunication Network Society of 2001 Through the formulation of the Basic Law on Formation of an Advanced Information and Telecommunication Network Society, the legal basis to execute an information technology policy is enhanced, and the direction and job content for the government to execute this policy is explicitly stated. 1.http://www.nisc.go.jp/eng/pdf/national_strategy_001_eng.pdf(last accessed date: 2009/07/20). 2.http://www.nisc.go.jp/en/sisaku/h1310action.html(last accessed date: 2009/07/20).

 Artificial Intelligence Governance - Taking Deep Fake as an Example

Artificial Intelligence Governance - Taking Deep Fake as an Example 1.Introduction 　　With the increasing maturity of the use of neural networks, the application of artificial intelligence technologies is becoming more and more widely used. Among them, through the automated editor and convolutional neural network technology, the threshold of the technology of copying films is not very high. In November 2017, some films that superimpose the faces of social celebrities on pornographic film actors/actresses appeared in the American social networking platform, Reddit. These types of films analyze the faces of specific socialites through deep learning algorithms and superimpose their faces on the films, making them look as if the films were taken by the socialites themselves. This technology was released by developers in 2018 and was made into an app for public use. At present, such technology is generally referred to as "deep fake" internationally, and it is believed that it may contribute to the speedy invention and distribution of false information existing throughout the Internet nowadays, which has attracted the attention of legislators worldwide. As it uses fake images or films automatically generated by Deep-learning technology, it involves both dimensions of fake information prevention and artificial intelligence governance. The purpose of this paper is to observe the relevant policies, legal measures and related guidelines or principles of the international community in response to issues of deep fake and artificial intelligence governance, and to examine whether the current legal system in Taiwan can cope with the impact of deep fake so as to provide feasible recommendations. 2.Ethics Rules for Artificial Intelligence 　　In the governance of artificial intelligence, the European Union introduced the “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI” on April 8, 2019 to establish a framework for supervising artificial intelligence in order to make artificial intelligence trustable. 　　The guidelines first points out that Trustworthy AI requires three key characteristics: (1) it should be lawful: complying with all applicable laws and regulations; (2) it should be ethical: ensuring adherence to ethical principles and values; and (3) it should be robust: both from a technical and social perspective, to avoid AI from inadvertently causing harm. 　　Fundamental Rights are the basis of trustworthy AI. In order to comply with the above-mentioned basic human rights and to make AI reliable, their expert group believes that AI should abide by four ethical principles, including: (1) respect for human autonomy; (2) prevention of harm; (3) fairness; and (4) explicability. The four ethical principles are also transformed into the seven specific measures: “human agency and oversight”, “technical robustness and safety”, “privacy and data governance”, “transparency”, “diversity, non-discrimination and fairness”, “societal and environmental wellbeing impact evaluation” and “AI accountability”. To facilitate the true implementation of self-assessment for application developers, the Guidelines devise the Trustworthy AI Assessment List in Chapter 4 for the reference of the enterprise. 3.Counter measures Against the International false messages 　　In response to the prevention of false messages, the two parties in the United States also jointly proposed in 2018 the Malicious Deep Fake Prohibition Act of 2018 to amend the relevant provisions of fraud in the criminal law. This bill amends Chapter 47 of the United States Code by adding Section 1041 with regard to fraud in connection with audiovisual records. It treats the use of deep fake as a criminal offence and defines deep fake as “audiovisual record created or altered in a manner that the record would falsely appear to a reasonable observer to be an authentic record of the actual speech or conduct of an individual”. It shall be unlawful to, using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce, to create, with the intent to distribute, a deep fake with the intent that the distribution of the deep fake would facilitate criminal or tortious conduct; or distribute an audiovisual record with actual knowledge that the audiovisual record is a deep fake, and the intent that the distribution of the audiovisual record would facilitate criminal or tortious conduct. Any person who violates the above may be sentenced to imprisonment for more than 2 years but less than 10 years. However, the bill is currently put on hold without being further reviewed. 　　In addition, in order to properly cope with the danger of deep fake, on June 28, 2019, the two parties in the US Congress jointly proposed the bill - "To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to publish an annual report on the use of deep fake technology, and for other purposes”, which may be cited as the "Deepfakes Report Act of 2019". This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security to conduct research on deep fake and related issues, produce an annual report, and to request it to assess the direction of addition or revision of relevant laws and regulations. Moreover, the US senators from both parties also proposed on June 12, 2019 the bill- “Defending Each and Every Person from False Appearances by Keeping Exploitation Subject to Accountability Act of 2019”, which may be cited as “DEEP FAKES Accountability Act”. This Act is the same as the Act of 2018, both of which treat the use of deep fake as a fraudulent act by adding section 1041 to Chapter 47 of the United States Code. However, this Act does not directly define deep fake, but rather define such a type of technology as “advanced technological false personation record”, and require such records to comply with: (1) DIGITAL WATERMARK: Any advanced technological false personation record which contains a moving visual element shall contain an embedded digital watermark clearly identifying such record as containing altered audio or visual elements. (2) AUDIOVISUAL DISCLOSURE shall comply with the following principles: A. clearly articulated verbal statement that identifies the record as containing altered audio and visual elements, and a concise description of the extent of such alteration; and B. an unobscured written statement in clearly readable text appearing at the bottom of the image throughout the duration of the visual element that identifies the record as containing altered audio and visual elements, and a concise description of the extent of such alteration. (3) VISUAL DISCLOSURE shall comply with the following principles: Any advanced technological false personation records exclusively containing a visual element shall include an unobscured written statement in clearly readable text appearing at the bottom of the image throughout the duration of the visual element that identifies the record as containing altered visual elements, and a concise description of the extent of such alteration. (4) AUDIO DISCLOSURE shall comply with the following principles: Any advanced technological false personation records exclusively containing an audio element shall include, at the beginning of such record, a clearly articulated verbal statement that identifies the record as containing altered audio elements and a concise description of the extent of such alteration, and in the event such record exceeds two minutes in length, not less than 1 additional clearly articulated verbal statement and additional concise description at some interval during each two-minute period thereafter. 　　According to the bill, those who violate the above requirements shall be subject to legal responsibilities. In criminal liabilities, whoever knowingly violates the above requirements and (1) with the intent to humiliate or otherwise harass the person falsely exhibited, provided the advanced technological false personation record contains sexual content of a visual nature and appears to feature such person engaging in such sexual acts or in a state of nudity; (2) with the intent to cause violence or physical harm, incite armed or diplomatic conflict, or interfere in an official proceeding, including an election, provided the advanced technological false personation record did in fact pose a credible threat of instigating or advancing such; (3) in the course of criminal conduct related to fraud, including securities fraud and wire fraud, false personation, or identity theft; or (4) by a foreign power, or an agent thereof, with the intent of influencing a domestic public policy debate, interfering in a Federal, State, local, or territorial election, or engaging in other acts which such power may not lawfully undertake, may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 5 years. In civil liabilities, any person who violates the above requirements may be subject to a civil penalty of up to US$150,000 per record or alteration, as well as the compensation for the damage, if any. 　　In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom also launched the "Online Harms White Paper" in April 2019, which will establish a new "Online Safety" control structure to respond to false messages and underage pornographic videos, deep fake and online drug trafficking and so on. 　　The report points out that the new network security control framework will clarify the legal obligations of the Internet company to make the company assume more security responsibilities and avoid the harm caused by the content or actions generated by the service provided, and establish an independent regulatory agency supervising and implementing the relevant legal policies. The regulatory authority should provide relevant guidelines for compliance with the new obligations. If the company is unwilling to comply with the relevant guidelines, it must bear the burden of proof and prove that its alternative measures can achieve more effectively for the purpose of protecting the Internet users. In addition, the framework will also include elements of “Transparency, Trust, and Accountability”. The competent authority will be given the right to request an annual transparency report be submitted by the company, which the report should indicate the relevant harmful contents appeared on its platform, explain how it is handling with the problem, and publish the report on the website. Furthermore, the competent authority will have the right to request additional information from the Internet company, such as how its algorithm works. 　　In response to false messages, the report points out that current Internet companies have begun to conduct research on the prevention and control methods of fake news dissemination, including: (1) through the terms of service, users are not allowed to distort their identity on social software to spread false messages. (2) developing relevant tools to detect suspicious, false or junk accounts; (3) using automated artificial intelligence to delete or remove fake accounts; and (4) collaborating with independent fact verifying platforms. However, in the future, the government hopes that the guidelines and related policies proposed by the competent authorities must further include the following matters: (1) The company shall clarify its definition of false information in its terms of service, and state its expectations of users, and the possible penalties to users who violate the company policy; (2) The company should adopt the relevant countermeasures to deal with users with distorted identities who disseminate false messages; (3) The visibility of the disputed content currently under the fact-verifying inspection shall be reduced; (4) The fact-verifying service shall be used, especially during the election period, for fulfilling the obligation of fact verification; (5) Promote authoritative news sources; (6) Promote news circulation from different perspectives, rather than only reinforce the messages of people's existing views; (7) Users should be able to recognize that they are interacting with automated accounts and should ensure that the dissemination of automated accounts information is not abused; (8) Promote the transparency of political advertising to comply with the norms of the UK electoral law; (9) Companies should ensure that users may mark the content that they believe to be false news by themselves and let them know that the company is targeting false news for countermeasures to be taken; (10) The procedures for publishing information should be open and transparent so that the public can assess the effectiveness of the company’s response to false information, and further support the relevant research on online false message activities; (11) The relevant procedures and measures should be taken to continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the processing flow of fake messages. 　　From the above-mentioned relevant international legal policy observations, it can be found that international measures related to deep fake can be classified into the following items: (1) Establish an independent fact-verifying unit. (2) Improve the transparency of information sources. (3) Improve the oversight responsibility of the online platform for the messages appeared on such a platform. (4) Deep fake is to be treated as an independent criminal act and its criminal, civil and administrative responsibilities are to be clearly regulated. (5) On the technical level, relevant artificial intelligence tools are being developed to respond to this issue. For example, the American startup company, Deeptrace, has begun to conduct research and develop deep fake identification technology to identify the authenticity of the films.

Research on the Introduction of Privacy Protection Management Mechanisms and Data Value-Added Services into Communications Enterprises in 2020

Research on the Introduction of Privacy Protection Management Mechanisms and Data Value-Added Services into Communications Enterprises in 2020 2021/12/09 I. Introduction 　　The global economy is shifting away from traditional economic models towards an emerging digital era as technology advancement and new applications are introduced. The rapidly changing digital age has led to a gradual transformation in the way digital technology is used in the industry, thereby driving the overall growth of the global digital economy. The digital economy is driven by "data," and how data is used, its purpose, risks and regulation are all inextricably intertwined with industrial development and application, as is the case for the communications industry. 　　As such, while the free circulation of data has become central to international free trade and economic operations, it is not only conducive to the promotion of transnational business and economic and trade interactions, but also fraught with worry and concern over how to ensure the protection and security of personal data and privacy. As a result, the issue of how to adapt the data risk control mechanism and related complementary measures so that they can be applied to the industry and comply with regulatory requirements has become a global reality that must be actively addressed. As far as Taiwan is concerned, when considering how to cope with industry needs, there is a pressing need to strike a balance between personal data and international regulatory requirements, and to expedite the legitimate utilization of personal data protection and data value-added service in the sector in an effort to facilitate the development of the digital economy. II. Recommendations on Data Governance and Innovative 　　Application Planning. According to the aforementioned international data strategies and strategies for innovative data applications, the development of the data economy as a whole is driven by the formulation of overall superior policies, with a view to fully utilizing the potential value of data and building a vibrant ecosystem suited for innovative data applications. With the outbreak of COVID-19 this year, the application of data will be crucial in the post-pandemic era. It is also observed that data applications are gradually moving towards cross-boundary sharing and reuse, and empowerment of data subjects, and therefore, in light of the above observations and findings, we offer recommendations on data governance and innovative application planning. First, as for the establishment of a ministry and mechanism for data application and communication, since there is no single dedicated authority in Taiwan, and the formation of a ministry for science and technology development is now under intense discussion, data application may become an important function of the ministry, so we have to consider an authority for data application and communication. Further, there is currently no sandbox mechanism for data application in Taiwan. Reference should be made to the British data communication mechanism for providing legal advice and consultation sought on data application regulation. 　　Second, with regard to the formulation of regulations and amendments to existing laws relating to data applications, the most noteworthy is the EU Data Governance Act 2021. Taiwan does not have a complete and appropriate legal framework for data application, except for the Freedom of Government Information Law, the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and the relevant laws and regulations distributed in various fields, and the nation is currently seeking an adequacy decision from the EU, and therefore our PDPA needs to be amended accordingly, yet no progress has been made at this stage. Consequently, a comprehensive strategy should be developed by taking into account both the formulation of the basic data application regulations and the amendments to the current PDPA, in order to achieve long-term data governance and application and sharing. 　　Lastly, in terms of the incorporation of the concept of data empowerment and the design of the mechanism, the international trend moves towards data empowerment to give data subjects more control over their data. The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) of Taiwan has also incorporated this idea in its open banking, so has the National Development Council’s (NDC) MyData program. As such, it is suggested that the government should provide guidelines or devise the relevant system, or even make reference to the Japanese data bank mechanism regarding the establishment of intermediaries to assist consumers in managing their data, which could be used as a reference for the design of the mechanism in the future. III. Accountability for and Management of Data Use in Enterprises 　　Among the countries studied regulation of Singapore and Taiwan are similar and have adopted the development of digital economy as their main economic strategy, but Singapore has been more proactive than Taiwan in the design of the legal system to facilitate the use of data. Therefore, with regard to the control of data use in businesses by the competent authorities, this Project, by looking at the amendment to the Singaporean PDPA, aims to reinforce the regulation of the accountability system and the operation of the existing series of guidelines. From the changes in Singapore's PDPA, it can be observed that the competent authorities can refer to the practices of enterprises in the use of data. 　　First of all, the existing regulations in Taiwan tend to have more about compliance than accountability, with emphasis being placed on data security maintenance and compliance with the PDPA. For instance, Taiwan’s “Regulations Governing Security Measures of the Personal Information File for Non-government Entities Designated by National Communications Commission” focus on following the law on the use of personal data. Nonetheless, the so-called accountability means that the competent authorities must oversee the implementation of data protection measures and policies of enterprises, not just pro forma compliance with the letter of the law. 　　The second observation is that Singapore is quite proactive in addressing the need for data use in the development of its digital economy by making an exception to innovative uses regarding informed consent. The inclusion of data portability also represents a heightened control of the data subject. These amendments are all related to Singapore's policy of actively developing its smart nation initiative and signify a more proactive approach by the authorities in monitoring the use of data by businesses. Taiwan needs to be more open and precise in regulating the use of data for the development of its digital economy. 　　Finally, there is increased flexibility in enforcement, as authorities can resolve disputes between subjects over data use more quickly through the introduction of mediation or other alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms. Meanwhile, the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) has developed industry-specific consultation guidelines, recognizing that there may be specific issues for different industries. The PDPC noted that these guidelines are based on the partnerships, consultations and feedback associated with the relevant industries, and close collaboration with the industry's authorities of target businesses. IV. Conclusion 　　Despite the lack of a dedicated authority for personal data protection, Taiwan can first build a cross-industry coordination and communication platform, and then collaborate across ministries to primary integrate standards in personal data protection to facilitate the needs of industrial innovation in the digital economy.

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